(Cento 1603–1649)
Still Life with Asparagus, Fish and Snails
oil on canvas, 86 x 87 cm, framed

Provenace:
Private collection, Florence

Literature:
A. Colombi Ferretti, in: La natura morta in Italia, ed. by F. Zeri, Milan, 1989, vol. I, pp. 455, 457, fig. 545 (as Paolo Antonio Barbieri);
G. Bocchi, in: G. Bocchi, Naturaliter. Nuovi contributi alla natura morta in Italia settentrionale e Toscana tra XVII e XVIII secolo, Casalmaggiore, 1998, pp. 239/40 (as relating to works by Giacomo Nani)

In the background of the composition, various species of fish are suspended from a screen of wooden boards, including an eel and a carp, with a bundle of asparagus next to them on the left-hand side. Further foodstuffs are arranged on a table in the foreground: a plate of snails at the right, with skinned frogs in front of it; the centre is dominated by two paper bags containing hazelnuts and pignoli. In the lower left corner we can see three dried herrings on a piece of paper, and above them there is a small wooden cask holding figs.

Lots 64, 65, 66 and 67 - Four still lifes by Paolo Antonio Barbieri
The attribution to Paolo Antonio Barbieri for the present series of still lifes was originally suggested by Mina Gregori. The group of paintings were subsequently published in the seminal work on Italian still life painting edited by Federico Zeri in 1989.

The artistic personality of Paolo Antonio Barbieri, the younger brother of the celebrated painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino, was studied in 1961: on the basis of the artist’s documented activity as a still life painter, Francesco Arcangeli succeeded in securely attributing to him the painting of a Spice Shop in Spoleto (Museo Civico), for which the artist had been paid in 1637 (F. Arcangeli, Il fratello del Guercino, in: Arte Antica e Moderna 4 [1961], pp. 326/27).

Paolo Antonio Barbieri’s activity as a still life specialist is attested to by the account book kept in his brother’s studio, in which he personally registered the payments received for the works of his brother and for his own still lifes from 1629 to his death in 1649 (see. B. Ghelfi [ed.], Il libro dei conti del Guercino 1629–1666, Bologna, 1997).

Paolo Antonio Barbieri was the first artist in the region around Bologna to specialise in still life painting. He can therefore be described as one of the founders of this artistic discipline as an autonomous genre in 17th century Emilian painting.

The present four paintings are characterised by a sober and austere naturalism, which is enhanced by an antiquated perspective and a regular treatment of light without any strong chiaroscuro. The artist has arranged the individual objects, which almost completely fill the square format of the pictures, strictly side by side, so that the compositions hardly give the illusion of spatial depth. The compositions are rather dominated by various (formal or colouristic) correspondences in the way the objects relate to one another, with connections created between individual objects without depriving them of their autonomous character.

Thanks to Barbieri’s obvious interest in the material properties of the foods and utensils depicted, they are endowed with an almost sacral aura and intimate tranquillity through which Barbieri defies contemporary Baroque taste.

Provenace:
Private collection, Florence

Literature:
A. Colombi Ferretti, in: La natura morta in Italia, ed. by F. Zeri, Milan, 1989, vol. I, pp. 455, 457, fig. 545 (as Paolo Antonio Barbieri);
G. Bocchi, in: G. Bocchi, Naturaliter. Nuovi contributi alla natura morta in Italia settentrionale e Toscana tra XVII e XVIII secolo, Casalmaggiore, 1998, pp. 239/40 (as relating to works by Giacomo Nani)

In the background of the composition, various species of fish are suspended from a screen of wooden boards, including an eel and a carp, with a bundle of asparagus next to them, on the left-hand side. Further foodstuffs are arranged on a table in the foreground: a plate of snails at the right, with skinned frogs in front of it; the centre is dominated by two paper bags containing hazelnuts and pignoli. In the lower left corner we can see three dried herrings on a piece of paper; and above them there is a small wooden cask holding figs.

Lots 64, 65, 66 and 67 - Four still lifes by Paolo Antonio Barbieri
The attribution to Paolo Antonio Barbieri for the present series of still lifes was originally suggested by Mina Gregori. The group of paintings were subsequently published in the seminal work on Italian still life painting edited by Federico Zeri in 1989.

The artistic personality of Paolo Antonio Barbieri, the younger brother of the celebrated painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino, was studied in 1961: on the basis of the artist’s documented activity as a still life painter, Francesco Arcangeli succeeded in securely attributing to him the painting of a Spice Shop in Spoleto (Museo Civico), for which the artist had been paid in 1637 (F. Arcangeli, Il fratello del Guercino, in: Arte Antica e Moderna 4 [1961], pp. 326/27).

Paolo Antonio Barbieri’s activity as a still life specialist is attested to by the account book kept in his brother’s studio, in which he personally registered the payments received for the works of his brother and for his own still lifes from 1629 to his death in 1649 (see. B. Ghelfi [ed.], Il libro dei conti del Guercino 1629–1666, Bologna, 1997).

Paolo Antonio Barbieri was the first artist in the region around Bologna to specialise in still life painting. He can therefore be described as one of the founders of this artistic discipline as an autonomous genre in 17th century Emilian painting.

The present four paintings are characterised by a sober and austere naturalism, which is enhanced by an antiquated perspective and a regular treatment of light without any strong chiaroscuro. The artist has arranged the individual objects, which almost completely fill the square format of the pictures, strictly side by side, so that the compositions hardly give the illusion of spatial depth. The compositions are rather dominated by various (formal or colouristic) correspondences in the way the objects relate to one another, with connections created between individual objects without depriving them of their autonomous character.

Thanks to Barbieri’s obvious interest in the material properties of the foods and utensils depicted, they are endowed with an almost sacral aura and intimate tranquillity through which Barbieri defies contemporary Baroque taste.